William Hilles Ward (1892-1961) was a chemist, who specialized in explosives serving in high positions at the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company and the Remington Arms Company, Inc. Ward was born on December 27, 1892, at Barnesville, Ohio, and received a received a B.A. in chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1915. He then joined E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company as a chemist at the Eastern Laboratory at Gibbstown, New Jersey, and became the head of the Explosives Testing Section there in 1920.

In 1923 he was appointed special assistant to the chemical director of the Explosives Department in Wilmington, then manager of the St. Louis sales office in 1929 and assistant director of sales at Wilmington in 1930. He was promoted to director of sales in 1933, to assistant general manager in 1935 and general manager in 1944.

Ward played an important role in organizing the military explosives program during World War II, and in recognition of this service, he was made a vice president, director, and member of the Executive Committee in 1948. Ward retired at the end of 1957 but remained on the board until 1959.

Ward was also a director of the Remington Arms Company, Inc., the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, the News-Journal Company and the A.H. Wirz Company, and served a term as chairman of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association. He was active in civic affairs in his home town of Swarthmore. Ward died on March 1, 1961.